Traveling cylinder printer with tilting carriage retained in a slot in the base

ABSTRACT

A device for imprinting documents by means of portable printing plates which can be of different sizes, and having a manually movable carriage which is pivotally mounted for operative engagement over and for permitting it to be swung away from the bed which supports the printing plate and the documents to be imprinted thereby.

United States Patent Rick [451 Apr. 11, 1972 1 TRAVELING CYLINDER PRINTER 3,138,091 6/1964 Maul ..101/269 x WITH TILTING CARRIAGE RETAINED 512,780 l/1894 Wesel ..l0l/269 IN A SLOT IN THE BASE 3,279,369 10/1966 Wight ....l01/269 X 3,152,543 10/1964 Hanson et a1. 101/269 [72] Inventor: Lawrence B. Rick, 1131 Pfingsten Road,

Glenview, 111. 60025 [22] Filed: Apr. 16, 1970 [2]] Appl. No.: 29,066

[52] U.S. Cl ..101/269 [51] Int. Cl. ..B41f3/20 [58] Field of Search 101/269, 270, 274

[56] References Cited UNlTED STATES PATENTS 3,417,691 12/1968 Kubovy ..101/269 Primary Examiner-William B. Penn Assistant Examiner-E. M. Coven Attorney-Gary, Juettner, Pigott & Cullinan [57] ABSTRACT A device for imprinting documents by means of portable printing plates which can be of different sizes, and having a manually movable carriage which is pivotally mounted for operative engagement over and for permitting it to be swung away from the bed which supports the printing plate and the documents to be imprinted thereby.

2 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures P'ATENTEDAPR 11 I972 3.654, 858

sum 1 OF 2 w A f? j? TRAVELING CYLINDER PRINTER WITH TILTING CARRIAGE RETAINED IN A SLOT IN THE BASE This invention relates to a novel compact and versatile imprinting device of the class wherein documents such as invoices, airline, bus and train tickets, and other point of purchase imprinting with merchant identification plates and/or customer charge or credit cards is desired. The plates or cards employed can be metal but more suitably are of plastic and the device of the present invention is not only adapted to employ printing plates of different sizes but also of different thicknesses in a single alignment gage or locating means.

The documents to be imprinted, although not necessarily limited thereto, are generally comprised of a plurality of sheets comprising a bottom card and an interposed carbon sheet, and with the use of such documents there is at times difficulty in properly aligning the document on the bed of the imprinter and over the imprinting plate and beneath the platen such that reject rates in scanning applications are at times unduly large and often double images result.

To overcome the foregoing defects, the present invention is characterized by a swing away platen feature wherein the platen is mounted on a manually movable carriage for impressing the document with the imprinting plate by rolling contact of the platen thereover. This swing away feature comprises means whereby the carriage and its platen are pivotally mounted on the device so that it can be swung into operative engagement over the platen and when desired such as for initially disposing a document on a bed of the imprinter, the carriage and its platen can be moved or swung above and away from the imprinter bed for ease in positioning the document on the bed and over the printing plate. This permits registration of the document to be imprinted and the imprinting plate in a more facile and ready manner and thus greatly reducing the reject rate while providing rapidity and simplicity of operation. As previously indicated, the device of the present invention provides alignment and locating means for printing plates of different thicknesses and size in the same anvil gage. Moreover, by means of ease of construction and arrangement, the entire gage can be mounted in different positions on the bed of the imprinter providing a multi-purpose imprinting device.

The compactness of the device can also provide a storage pocket for storing documents to be imprinted in a ready and convenient position adjacent to the bed of the imprinting device.

Similar to the adjustability of the imprinting plate locating means, the means for locating the document to be imprinted can also be variably disposed on the bed of the imprinter. Moreover, the platen can likewise be adjusted longitudinally of the carriage or transversely of the imprinter bed and provided in different lengths so as to imprint on different areas disposed transversely of the bed of the imprinter. Moreover, if desired, the platen may be provided with inking means for rolling contact during operation wherein it is desired to imprint directly on the uppermost surface of the document being imprinted, all without smearing of extraneous ink.

The objects of the present invention, the economies thereof and its details of construction and arrangement of parts will be further apparent from a consideration of the following specification and accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the imprinter of the present invention with the carriage swung away from normal operative position shown in dotted lines.

FIG. 2 is a section on the line 2--2 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary section on the line 33 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary detailed section on the line 4-4 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 5 is a plan view on the line 55 of FIG. 3 showing the printing plate positioning and alignment gage means.

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary longitudinal sectional view of the platen carrying carriage showing inking means for the platen.

Referring to the drawings, the reference numeral 10 indicates the bed of the imprinter of the present invention supported on a base comprising a first side wall 11 and a second side wall 12 and end walls 13 and 14, the end wall 13 being desirably formed with an aperture 15, a bottom 16 being included in the base so as to provide a convenient storage place for documents 17 which are to be imprinted.

Mounted on the device is a carriage 18 adapted to be moved longitudinally of the bed 10, the carriage carrying a roller or platen 19 freely mounted on the shaft 20 extending between the carriage legs 21 and 22.

The platen 19, which can suitably be composed of Teflon, is of desirable length and disposed in desirable position transversely of the bed 10 and longitudinally of the carriage 18 by means of the abutment walls 23, 23 which can be integrally formed with or adhesively secured within the hand-hold portion of the carriage 18 or may be transversely adjustable on the shaft 20.

The carriage 18 as a unit is swingably mounted above the bed 10 by means of intumed aperature toes 24, 24 which are mounted on or formed with the carriage leg 21 and slidably received on a rod 25 which is fixedly mounted between the end walls of the bed. The other leg 22 of the carriage also has an intumed toe comprising a roller 26 joumalled on a shaft 27, the roller 26 riding in and normally bearing on the upper defining edge 28 of the slot 29 formed in the upper edge of side wall 12. The bed 10 is formed with one or more notches 30 opening to the slot 29 whereby the roller 26 can be withdrawn from the slot 29 and the carriage thereupon tilted upwardly and away from the bed 10 on its rod 26 as shown in full in FIG. 1.

When the carriage is tilted away from the bed 10 as shown in FIG. 1 a printing plate 41 or 42 or embossed plastic card can be conveniently disposed on the anvil plate 31 which may be composed of a plastic plate adhesively secured in desired position on the bed 10. The anvil plate comprises at one edge hook-like abutment legs 32, 32 beneath which one edge of the printing plate or card 41 or 42 can be disposed with its upper edge in abutment with either of the vertical wall portions 33, 34 formed by embossments 35 on the anvil 31; for example, in abutment with the defines of the upper. outer walls 33 for a larger card 42 or the defines of the lower inner walls 34 for a smaller card 41, and thereby adapting the plate 31 for operative disposition of imprinting plates or cards of for example at least two sizes without requirement of adjustment. Of course, the plate can be made to support a printing plate of single size and as previously indicated may be disposed in desired position either longitudinally or transversely of the bed 10.

For operative association of a document with a printing plate on the plate 31, I provide alignment means 36 disposed as by adhesive securing to desirable predetermined positions on the bed 10. The members 36 have horizontal walls spaced above the bed beneath which the comers or edges of a document 37 can be positioned, whereby the document is positively located relative to the plate so as to be imprinted either by the platen 19 when inked by the inking means shown in FIG. 6, or by the action of interposed carbon or impact activated imaging chemicals as is conventional with multiple sheet documents.

As previously indicated, for facility of operation the imprinting plate and document are first positioned on the bed 10 while the carriage 18 is swung away from the bed 10. Then the carriage 18 is swung over the bed 10 and its roller 26 inserted through the notch 30 into the slot 29. Thereafter, upon longitudinal movement of the carriage 18 over the bed 10 with the roller 26 riding in the slot 29, an impression is made by means of the platen l9 rolling over the document 36 while the latter is positioned above a printing plate.

As previously indicated, inking means can be provided when desired as shown in FIG. 6 and which comprises an inking pad 38 adjustably carried by a spring-pressed knob means 39. The pad may resiliently engage the platen 19 at all times or may normally be spaced therefrom and have its knob extend through an aperture in the hand-hold portion of the carriage 18 so that the platen 19 can be selectively pre-inked by rolling contact with the pad 38, suitably by conjoint manual operation of the pad knob 39 and a platen roller knob 40.

As the carriage 18 is moved over the printing plate and the superposed document, from left to right as viewed in FIG. 1, the document is printed and the carriage guiding roll 26 then approaches the opposite end of the slot 29, whereupon the roller engages an upwardly inclined cam surface 45 leading into an exit slot 46 causing the roller to be automatically ejected from the slot and released for swinging movement away from the bed 10. This structure provides the particular advantage that the carriage l8 and thus the platen 19 are automatically ejected from operative position following the making of one impression so that the platen cannot be reversely rolled back over the document. This eliminates the traditional problem of double impression, i.e. printing of a second impression which is usually offset from and thus blurs the first impression. Consequently, with this apparatus, a single clear cut impression is secured and subsequent machine and computer handling of the imprinted document facilitated.

Although I have shown and described the preferred embodiment of my invention, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in the details thereof 20 without departing from its scope as comprehended by the following claims.

1 claim:

1. In a document imprinting device comprising a base having first and second longitudinally extending and parallel sides, a top wall between said sides, means for holding a document over a printing plate on said top wall, impression platen means between said sides and adapted to engage said document, guide means associated with said first side for slidably guiding said platen means longitudinally of said base and pivotally mounting said platen means for swinging movement between a first position angularly spaced from said document and a second position in contact with said document, the improvement comprising a slot extending longitudinally in said second side of said base and having a downwardly facing edge, bearing means associated with said platen means and engageable with the downwardly facing edge of said slot and holding said platen means in pressure contact with said document, said slot being substantially coextensive with said document and having first and second upwardly open ends, and an upwardly inclined surface at said second end, whereby said bearing means may be admitted to said slot at said first end and cammed out of said slot at said second end.

2. The device of claim 1 wherein said impression platen means comprises a shaft, a roller mounted on said shaft, and means for transversely positioning said roller on said shaft. 

1. In a document imprinting device comprising a base having first and second longitudinally extending and parallel sides, a top wall between said sides, means for holding a document over a printing plate on said top wall, impression platen means between said sides and adapted to engage said document, guide means associated with said first side for slidably guiding said platen means longitudinally of said base and pivotally mounting said platen means for swinging movement between a first position angularly spaced from said document and a second position in contact with said document, the improvement comprising a slot extending longitudinally in said second side of said base and having a downwardly facing edge, bearing means associated with said platen means and engageable with the downwardly facing edge of said slot and holding said platen means in pressure contact with said document, said slot being substantially coextensive with said document and having first and second upwardly open ends, and an upwardly inclined surface at said second end, whereby said bearing means may be admitted to said slot at said first end and cammed out of said slot at said second end.
 2. The device of claim 1 wherein said impression platen means comprises a shaft, a roller mounted on said shaft, and means for transversely positioning said roller on said shaft. 